


blood and ribbons

by heliantheae



Series: salt lines and white lies [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Black Family, F/M, Humor, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 01:42:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18885544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heliantheae/pseuds/heliantheae
Summary: “Bellatrix kidnapped me last week,” he says experimentally.“I’m aware,” she replies, eyes firmly fixed on the list of tea blends.





	blood and ribbons

Lucius wakes up on a cold stone floor, and takes a moment to wonder if he’s naturally incapable of making good decisions or if it’s some sort of obscure curse. He thinks back and remembers...very little. He’d been at a pub, he thinks. A man had bought him a drink, asking after his father. Nothing unusual there. After that though, there was nothing. He sits up cautiously, feeling a little like he’d been trampled by a centaur at some point during the night. 

“Oh, good. You’re awake.”

Bellatrix’s form materializes from the shadows. “Did you drug me?” Lucius demands, not particularly reassured to recognize his kidnapper.

“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s Andromeda’s specialty.”

Right. He actually feels a little better knowing the middle Black sister is also involved, if only because it means he’s probably not going to become a ritual sacrifice. He eyes his surroundings, still feeling a significant amount of trepidation. In addition to the fact that he’s clearly in a dungeon, he’s also trapped in a circle of some kind. It’s composed of a white ribbon laid out in a triangle, anchored at each corner with large chunks of smoky quartz. The triangle has a black spot marking the midpoint of each side, and a red splotches at even intervals. The black would be the blood from Narcissa’s demon, the red presumably human. 

It’s not just a trap, he realizes. It’s a test. This sort of scheme will only hold a wizard that’s used enough Dark magic for it to have left its mark on their magical core. If he can walk out of it they’ll likely assume he’s weak. If he can’t, well, they have him trapped. Ironic that the circle is also considered Dark and therefore illegal, because the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would really benefit from it. 

“What do you want?” he asks warily. 

Bellatrix shows all of her teeth in an approximation of a smile, “I can’t want to spend some _quality time_ with my future husband or brother-in-law?”

The way she says quality time makes Lucius think they have very different ideas about what that might entail. Hers probably involves a lot less sitting by a fire listening to the wireless and a lot more blood. “Arranging a marriage wasn’t my idea?” he offers, and winces when she pouts, shifting from angry to threateningly flirtatious in a flash.

“Come on, baby, don’t you think I’m pretty?”

Lucius is pretty sure this is a trick question, given she obviously knows she’s attractive and also that she appears to be one deep breath away from busting out of her dress. He’s trying very hard not to look. She is so scary.

“Yes?” he hedges.

She rocks back on her heels, mood shifting again and suddenly looking much more sane. “Merlin, help me. This isn’t even any fun. I’m just going to lay it out for you. I don’t want to marry you because I’m already involved with a man I think far more suitable. Andromeda doesn’t want to marry you, though I’m not actually sure why. She usually likes blonds. Narcissa isn’t of age for another year, and her dowry isn’t large enough to interest your father. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

He hesitates, distracted by the information about Narcissa, “Wait, Narcissa doesn’t not want to marry me?”

“Narcissa thinks you’re unobjectionable, as far as wizards your age go. Salazar knows why.” 

“I don’t think she’s objectionable either,” Lucius says, deciding to take that as a compliment. 

Bellatrix rolls her eyes. “Do you have ears? Let me break it down for you. Dowry. Too small.”

“My family isn’t exactly hurting for money.”

“No, but you don’t have any political presence in Britain to speak of. Andromeda and I both come with inherited titles for our husbands. Narcissa doesn’t.”

Lucius thinks she’s doing a remarkably good job keeping the bitterness out of her voice when she talks about being traded like a pile of galleons and paperwork in a corset, and he says as much which makes her snort. 

“Oh, please.”

“I don’t think my father is as interested in political power as you think he is,” he tells her. “It could be for the best to keep our heads down for a few generations.”

Bellatrix raises an eyebrow, so Lucius elaborates. 

“It’s just, well, my family seems to attract political turmoil. Nothing has really gone right for us since the Norman Conquest.”

“The French Revolution was hardly the fault of your ancestors. At least not entirely,” she amends. “I suppose when you consider that nonsense in the Russian Empire earlier this century there does appear to be a rather unfortunate pattern.”

“Rather unfortunate—,” Lucius splutters. “There’s no Russian Empire anymore. It’s the USSR. My family lost almost everything.”

“And now your father has given up on trying to make things work in the Soviet Union, so here you are in England with a few hundred thousand galleons and a manor house your father won in a poker game, if I’m not mistaken. Quite the catch.”

“So, Narcissa’s dowry isn’t large enough to interest my family, but I’m also not good enough for her?”

Bellatrix positively beams. “Now you’re getting it.”

“Unbelievable,” says Lucius, and lays back down so he can stare at the ceiling.

\-------

Despite apparently being ill-suited for one another, Lucius and Narcissa meet for tea. She’s accompanied by a murderously bored Sirius, who had been roped into chaperoning for the sake of propriety, and Regulus, who had mostly just wanted to get out of the house.

“I won’t tell if you want to kiss,” the boy assures them as they take their seats in a classy cafe just off of Diagon Alley. 

The hostess looks mildly scandalized. This does nothing to discourage Regulus.

“Sirius says we have to be here so you guys don’t snog and make our parents angry, but I heard from Jeremiah Flint who heard from his older brother that McGonagall caught him snogging—”

“That’s enough of that,” Sirius interrupts hastily. “Look, they have chocolate crepes.” 

Regulus is eleven, so this is an effective distraction. 

“Your server will be right with you,” the hostess says.

She hurries away, likely to warn their server that they’re all mad. Lucius looks at Narcissa, who is as lovely as ever in a flowy green gown and biting her lip slightly while reading the menu. 

“Bellatrix kidnapped me last week,” he says experimentally. 

“I’m aware,” she replies, eyes firmly fixed on the list of tea blends. 

“I wasn’t,” Sirius says. “You’re still in one piece? She must be getting soft in her old age.”

“Maybe she likes you!” Regulus exclaims. “Wouldn’t that be funny? If Bellatrix and Narcissa both liked the same boy?”

“It would be like the Judgement of Solomon, but they’d use him for parts,” says Sirius, sounding almost wondering at what a spectacle it would be.

Lucius shutters. “Happily for me, I don’t think she does.” 

“Oh, doesn’t she?” Narcissa asks.

She still hasn’t looked up. Lucius is getting the feeling she’s upset with him. The Malfoy luck really is incredible—only his second time meeting her and she’s already angry. And he’d spent the first time Conjuring flies, not talking. Merlin.

“She said she didn’t want to marry me?” he offers, “Because she already had a more suitable man in mind or something.”

This gets everyone’s attention. Lucius finds himself scrutinized by three pairs of sharp gray eyes. 

“Now that,” Sirius says. “Is interesting.”

“Do you think it’s Lestrange?” Regulus asks. “Because he doesn’t like Quidditch and I don’t like him.”

Narcissa frowns. “Or—she wouldn’t though, would she?”

“Wouldn’t what?” Lucius wants to know, feeling very out of the loop.

“There’s no way,” Sirius says firmly. “No one even knows his real name. He might not even be a pureblood.”

“Please,” says Narcissa. “Would he talk like that if he wasn’t?”

“He’s clearly not stable,” Sirius hisses. “Do you know what kind of magic makes you look like _that_?”

“Can I take your order?” their server, a young brunette woman, asks cheerfully.

She manages to startle Narcissa and Sirius, who both twitch violently, wands appearing in their hands. The server puts her hands up placatingly.

“I want hot chocolate and chocolate crepes,” Regulus declares, apparently oblivious to the sudden air of barely restrained violence, “With extra whipped cream on both.”

“I’d like some semblance of control over my life,” Lucius says gloomily. “Barring that, what’s today’s omelette special?”

\-------

“I have some business in Knockturn Alley,” Narcissa announces as they stroll out of the cafe, blinking in the sudden sunlight.

“I don’t want to be involved in your Dark illegal bullshit,” Sirius informs her. 

“Oh, my apologies. I forgot befriending Potter effectively neutered you.”

Lucius holds backs a sigh. The meal had been fairly free from confrontation—something quite novel, Regulus assured him from behind a whipped cream mustache. It had been too much to hope the truce would continue. 

“Maybe I just don’t want lose my mind or grow scales when I do one too many rituals. Have you seen how Bellatrix is looking lately?”

He considers his memories of Bellatrix’s uncomfortably numerous and sharp-looking teeth, and decides the Black heir might have a point.

“You don’t have to come,” Narcissa is saying.

Sirius snorts. “Aunt Druella would flay me.”

“Is Knockturn safe for Regulus?” Lucius asks, because it’s not exactly the sort of place he wants to take a child he’s technically responsible for and their argument doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

The cousins all consider him, looking faintly puzzled as to why taking Regulus would be an issue.

“He’s a little old for the fairies to want him,” Narcissa says.

“And the hag on the corner by Borgin and Burke’s says I’m too stringy to eat. Please, Lucius?” Regulus wheedles. “There’s this book on broomstick jinxes…”

They go to Knockturn Alley. Narcissa’s business is _incredibly_ illegal. Sirius, for his part, keeps a hand clamped firmly over his eyes the entire time.

“This way I can honestly say I’ve never seen Narcissa make a blood amulet,” he explains when Lucius asks. 

He probably wouldn’t appreciate it if Lucius pointed out how very Slytherin of him that line of thinking was.


End file.
